Arts & Life

Arts

'Test Kitchen': Have Your (Gluten-Free) Cake, And Love Eating It Too

11:06am March 21, 2014

America's Test Kitchen knows how to make gluten-free food taste just as good as the regular stuff. The ATK team tells Fresh Air about the best packaged pasta, and the secrets of gluten-free baking.

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Hugh Bonneville (left) stars as Lord Grantham and Jim Carter as Mr. Carson, the formidable butler of Downton Abbey.

Arts

'Downton Abbey' Cast: It's More Fun Downstairs

4:41pm March 20, 2014

by NPR Staff

NPR's David Greene speaks with some of the cast members of the British TV hit Downton Abbey. The third season premieres in the U.S. Sunday on PBS.

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Books
Arts

Nancy Pearl Scours The Shelves For Books You Might Have Missed

4:06pm March 20, 2014

by NPR Staff

NPR's go-to librarian recommends five "under the radar" books she thinks you should read this summer. They range from a Jane Austenesque love story to a real life, intellectual detective tale.

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Gary Barthelmy, Oyster Fisherman is a portrait by Reeva Wortel, used in conjunction with the production of Spill, a play that runs through March 30 at the Swine Palace in Baton Rouge.

Arts

Deepwater, Center-Stage: Disaster Through Survivors' Eyes

4:50pm March 19, 2014

by Eve Troeh

Spill tells the story of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Eve Troeh of WWNO reports that the playwright, who helped create The Laramie Project, crafted the drama from interviews with real participants.

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Dolly Wells (left) and Emily Mortimer have been real-life friends since childhood. Now they're co-starring in an inside-showbiz comedy airing on HBO.

Arts

When Your Best Friend Is A Star — And You're Her Minion

3:29pm March 19, 2014

by David Bianculli

The British import Doll & Em is another inside-Hollywood comedy from HBO; Emily Mortimer and her real-life friend Dolly Wells play outsize versions of themselves.

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Books
Arts

What U.S. Learned From 'Heathen School' Wasn't Part Of The Lesson Plan

9:51am March 19, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

The 19th century Connecticut school sought to convert young men from Hawaii, China, India and the Native American nations and then send them home as Christian missionaries. It did not go as planned.

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Carl Hoffman is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler.

Books
Arts

Cannibals And Colonialism: Solving The Mystery Of Michael Rockefeller

5:14pm March 18, 2014

The son of one of America's wealthiest families disappeared off the island of New Guinea in 1961. Writer Carl Hoffman explains how he thinks Rockefeller died and why the truth was kept hidden.

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Illustration: A trophy sits on a pile of books.

Books
Arts

Best Of The Summer: 6 Books The Critics Adore

4:30pm March 18, 2014

by Lynn Neary

Have you ever found yourself in the library or a bookstore, about to go on vacation, with no idea what books to bring? NPR's Lynn Neary talks to three book critics about the best reads of the summer.

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Remembering Cory Monteith — Not Finn Hudson In 'Glee'

4:29pm March 18, 2014

by Nathan Rott

Cory Monteith was known to most Americans as the star of TV's Glee. But Monteith, who died at age 31, was a former high school dropout who used an unorthodox audition tape to get noticed.

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Illustration: sculpture of a book on a pedestal.

Books
Arts

Lost And Found: 5 Forgotten Classics Worth Revisiting

4:25pm March 18, 2014

It's a tragedy, perhaps, but books do go out of print. Reviewer and editor Parul Sehgal recommends five that have come back to life.

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